“The diesel fairy tale” / Making nuclear exit a business
tageszeitung (taz)
Diesel cars use more fuel and thus emit more CO₂ than carmakers specify, according to previously unreleased test results by Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), reports Bernhard Pötter for tageszeitung (taz). In the course of investigations surrounding NOx emissions from diesel cars in 2016, KBA also examined CO₂ emissions and found that they were 10 to 36 percent higher than specified in the 30 inspected models, according to documents seen by taz. Tests were carried out according to the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC), not real-life conditions, writes Pötter. Until now, the transport ministry has not published the 2016 findings on CO₂ emissions. VW confirmed that they adjusted their models’ specifications in reaction to the KBA’s test results.
Read the article in German here.
For background read the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers.
tageszeitung (taz)
By not publishing CO₂ emissions test results, the federal government is protecting Germany’s auto industry and thus hindering important innovation in efficiency and climate protection, writes Bernhard Pötter in an opinion piece in taz. “If in ten years the auto industry collapses like the big power utilities do now, the federal government will also be to blame,” writes Pötter.
Read the opinion piece in German here.
For background read the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers.
Clean Energy Wire
Germany’s energy transition will face a critical phase after the next legislative period in 2021, according to the national utility association BDEW. “The real challenges lie between 2021 and 2030, when the nuclear exit has been completed and excess power capacities are drastically reduced," the lobby group’s head Stefan Kapferer told journalists in Berlin. Germany's last nuclear plant will shut down in 2022. “After that, we’ll have to see how fossil power plant capacity, which will still be needed for the foreseeable future, will be structured,” Kapferer said. Other crucial issues are building high-voltage transmission lines and electrifying the transport and heating sectors, he said. The BDEW expects wholesale power prices to pick up after 2022, he said. According to the BDEW, Germany's next government after September's elections had to prepare the right conditions for the critical 2020s. This meant hurdles for storage solutions and decentralised supply had to be lowered, taxes and levies on power reduced, and a modernisation of the heating sector made a priority, it explained.
For more information, see the CLEW dossier Vote2017 - German elections and the Energiewende.
WirtschaftsWoche
Dismantling Germany’s nuclear power plants is a lucrative business for companies carrying out the task, and final costs are hard to predict, writes Konrad Fischer in WirtschaftsWoche. “Nobody has experience with such a task, so how is one supposed to calculate the costs?” asked Michael Klein, director of the nuclear power plant Stade in northern Germany, in the magazine. In the future, companies that now gain experience in Germany will face a global market of dismantling nuclear power stations “virtually without competition,” writes Fischer.
For background read the CLEW dossier The challenges of Germany’s nuclear phase-out and the CLEW factsheet Nuclear clean-up costs.
EurActiv
The EU needs to take a leadership role in addressing fossil fuel subsidies and the G20 platform is “an obvious way for EU leaders and ministers to showcase their efforts and actions to eliminate” them, writes Maeve McLynn, finance and subsidies policy coordinator at Climate Action Network Europe, in a guest commentary for EurActiv.
Read the guest commentary in English here.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Companies for whom offshore wind parks are a core business, but were not successful in Germany’s first competitive auction for the technology, will “have a problem”, as only one more auction was planned for offshore expansion until 2025, writes Andreas Mihm in an opinion piece in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. This explained the low average successful bid. “The result of the tender is a setback for companies like RWE carve-out innogy or Sweden’s Vattenfall,” writes Mihm.
On the topic, read the updated CLEW article Operators to build offshore wind farms without support payments.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Several EU countries are rejecting an ambitious and binding energy efficiency goal proposed by the EU Commission in its winter package, reports Hendrik Kafsack in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). The EU Council Presidency, currently held by Malta, aims to make the target non-binding, according to documents seen by FAZ. Germany, France, Luxemburg, Denmark and other member states will now try to prevent this weakening of proposals, the article says.
For background read the CLEW article German reactions to the EU energy package and the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and Efficiency.
Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) / The Energy Collective
Prioritising efficiency measures that cost less or deliver more value than planned investment in supply resources and infrastructure is “a crucial building block” for Germany’s Energiewende, writes Andreas Jahn of the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) in an article carried by The Energy Collective. Since the German government published its green paper on energy efficiency, it is now up to citizens and organizations to “step up to ensure that this topic becomes part of the next election platform and, thus, part of the next coalition agreement,” writes Jahn.
Read the article in English here.
For background read the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and Efficiency.
Climate Home
The EU should block the Russian-German gas pipeline project Nord Stream 2 not only for reasons of energy security, but also on climate grounds, writes Marcin Stoczkiewicz, head of Central & Eastern Europe at ClientEarth in a guest commentary on Climate Home. “If EU member states are serious about their commitments to tackle climate change, they should use every tool in the box to stop Nord Stream 2,” writes Stoczkiewicz. Nord Stream 2 would risk locking in fossil fuel use for decades.
Read the guest commentary in English here.
For background read the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and its implications for international security.
